The news arrives just as the Republic of Ireland become the first country in Europe to try to pass a law banning the sale of branded cigarettes. Here in the UK the law is under consideration.

This is the logic behind the ban: graphic branding of cigarettes promotes and glamorises smoking. By eliminating branding there’s more room for warning messages. Smoking will become undesirable.

Yet in Australia, instead of reducing the number of smokers, it made people flock to buy cheaper cigarettes, whose sales have increased by an astonishing 50 per cent. Apparently people were walking into stores asking "what are your cheapest smokes?" You can afford more, therefore you smoke more.

What is interesting about this debacle is the power of brands over our lives. The badge of a product informs our purchasing decisions. In turn the brand guarantees a certain standard. Without it, consumers have no way of identifying which product they prefer. In some areas, such as condiments and cosmetics, the product is meaningless to us without the label (and yes opting for "own brand" products such as Asda’s is still opting for a brand).

So what happens when you turn products into homogenous-looking entities? The emotional attachment is taken away – you might as well make you own. Which is what happened in Australia. The sales of loose tobacco for roll-ups has increased by 3.4 percent. Or you go for the cheapest, safe in the knowledge that no one will see you're smoking a crappy brand.

This is dangerous. When you take away branding you also take away that pledge of quality – even in cancer-causing products such as tobacco – and you open the door for unscrupulous vendors. This price-driven consumer behaviour is currently a huge problem in China, where vendors create fake eggs, milk powder and oil. What a Chinese consumer wants is a bargain!

Lower pricing creates pressure to cut cost and in the end it’s the consumer that suffers. In the case of cigarettes what was a problem has the potential to become an even bigger problem. Take away branding and you don’t eliminate demand – you eliminate accountability.